This month, I thought I’d do something a little different. Eight months ago, I met the most wonderful woman. We’ll call her Hilldawg. She’s the best thing ever in so many ways. One of those myriad ways is not only does she support my work with Heavy Blog, but she’s also a metalhead herself. We’ve had great times just introducing each other to music we love. Some of it is slammin’ (like when she told me Roots Bloody Roots is her favorite record and I remembered Sepultura was a band), some of it is less so (I’ll never get her into Municipal Waste). But we appreciate each other’s particular tastes.

If you’ve followed Heavy Blog over the last few years, you’ve likely noticed how much we adore the output of Art As Catharsis. This year alone, we’ve seen phenomenal albums ranging from the nu-jazz-fusion of COAST to the artsy chamber pop of Lack the Low to the blackened, deathly metalcore of Bridge Burner. I’ve long…

More than perhaps in any other genre of music, the potential for exploration, innovation, and experimentation in metal is limitless. Whether it’s a focus on the seamless melding of metal subgenres into new and exciting forms or the constant push of metal’s thematic heart and soul into bold horizons, this…

Five years after the release of the acclaimed Pandora’s Piñata, Diablo Swing Orchestra (DSO) are back with their fourth full-length offering: Pacifisticuffs. If that’s a title that’s hard to take seriously then you’ve come to the right place, as DSO are anything but. Their music is fun and care-free, so…

We’re going to take a tiny detour off our safari of weird music and talk about minimalism. First off: what the hell is minimalism? We throw that term out a lot here on Heavy Blog, with Scott and Nick in particular being fans of post-minimalists like Tim Hecker and Colin Stetson, but there isn’t…

Normally, Heavy Vanguard has been about the album format, and giving significant releases of that size some much-needed attention. Today, however, we’re slightly tweaking that formula and instead covering a single composition: “Threnody To The Victims Of Hiroshima” by legendary (at least in modern classical circles) Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. For…